Pictures top to bottom: Celebrating after my duathlon with "celebration salad"; Big Sur on route to Santa Barbara; Marianne and Brian Hiff on their Davis rented bikes; Marianne and I shopping in San Fran (thank goodness for husbands' Blackberries); Cam and Brian; Marianne and I; Outdoor dining in Davis; Marianne performing our new bedroom mirror trick.
We have been introduced to a new kind of rodent that we're not so familiar with in Canada. Cam and I kept hearing sounds in our bedroom wall during the night and throughout the morning. We have very active squirrels around our house so we figured we had a squirrel getting in between the walls. I quickly resorted to the yellow pages for rodent control only to find many companies that deal with rats - roof rats, wood rats and the likes. I also discovered that many companies have bi-monthly plans (that's every other month in this case. If you're into grammar like I am, you know that bi-monthly can mean every other month or twice a month.) So we had the "Rat Tracker" come and play sleuth around our house. At the end of his inspection he looked at us and said, "Yup, you've got a rat problem." As a result we're now on the bi-monthly rodent control plan. Cam has been amazed how calm I am about it. My response is: they are extremely common, they should be gone in a week or two and I can't see them. He's not as calm about it. His response is: how do I sleep when I have rats in the wall 18 inches from my head? I do admit it's quite disgusting. We've been warned that because they're being baited they get thirsty and we may find some in our pool.
Thankfully we had vacation time scheduled and are currently enjoying some time in Santa Barbara. We're at the same place that we were at one year ago and it feels wonderful to be back here. The weather has been cooler but that is ok with us. Our day usually starts with homework for the kids. They are on independent study plans while we're on vacation otherwise the school loses funding due to their absence. We brought our bikes and have enjoyed biking along the ocean front. I took part in the Santa Barbara Duathlon which involved flat running and very hilly cycling. It was a small race of about 100 people so I didn't win any great prizes but it felt great to finish and to do better than I expected. Cam planned a celebration meal for me after the race. My choice of a meal was salad, so he made this amazing "Californian Salad". We dubbed it the "Celebration Salad". It had avocadoes, crab, fresh dill, peas and other items in it. Let me know if you'd like the recipe and I'll send it to you. We bought the crab off a boat down at the harbour. We're enjoying wonderful fish and all the fresh organic fruits and vegetables that are grown in this area. There are eight markets Tuesdays to Sundays in the Santa Barbara area that we can go to.
Thankfully we had vacation time scheduled and are currently enjoying some time in Santa Barbara. We're at the same place that we were at one year ago and it feels wonderful to be back here. The weather has been cooler but that is ok with us. Our day usually starts with homework for the kids. They are on independent study plans while we're on vacation otherwise the school loses funding due to their absence. We brought our bikes and have enjoyed biking along the ocean front. I took part in the Santa Barbara Duathlon which involved flat running and very hilly cycling. It was a small race of about 100 people so I didn't win any great prizes but it felt great to finish and to do better than I expected. Cam planned a celebration meal for me after the race. My choice of a meal was salad, so he made this amazing "Californian Salad". We dubbed it the "Celebration Salad". It had avocadoes, crab, fresh dill, peas and other items in it. Let me know if you'd like the recipe and I'll send it to you. We bought the crab off a boat down at the harbour. We're enjoying wonderful fish and all the fresh organic fruits and vegetables that are grown in this area. There are eight markets Tuesdays to Sundays in the Santa Barbara area that we can go to.
We had a great time with Brian and Marianne Hiff a couple weeks ago and were sad to see them go. We kept a fairly rigorous schedule including several scheduled workouts of cycling, running and listening to rats run the wall. It was great to have my workout partner back with me for a few days.
Our medical insurance seems to be finally resolved but our fingers are still crossed. I got wonderful responses from our family doctors at home when they suggested that I could fax them the required insurance forms and the doctors would fill them out - they do that all the time. I faxed the forms and then naively assumed the forms were being filled out until I called 2 weeks later to find out they were just sitting on the doctors' desks and they would be done when the doctors had time. After that I called everyday, sometimes a couple times a day, only to get the response, "As an employee I can only let the doctor know that you've called AGAIN." For the most part we are thrilled with our Canadian medical system but this was one area where we became so frustrated and disappointed. In a panic our forms were picked up at our docs' offices and couriered to the insurance company in California only for us to find out by email that we missed the deadline and our applicaton was now on hold. But now, it seems that they got the necessary info and we're now actively insured - or at least our fingers are crossed.
It likely seems that life here is all sunshine, palm trees, surfers, and relaxation. The truth be told - we have found the settling in period much harder than we anticipated. From rats to medical insurance to drivers' licenses (we both passed our driving tests) to worrying about how our kids will do in school (they make many kids repeat Kindergarten and they allowed us to put Reuben in grade one) to starting a new business in a foreign country (I won't even start naming things on that list) to putting up with the heat and now the cold that will soon be upon us to... still not having friends...The list goes on.
But, before you start feeling too sorry for us, we're in a land of beautiful surroundings, plentiful and exotic organic and fresh food, great fitness opportunities and a more relaxed pace of life. It is good to be in California - a place that we enjoy and love to discover. We look at this as an experience our family will benefit from in many ways.
In the upcoming weeks we look forward to seeing our friend Robin Kalbfleisch from Toronto win the San Francisco marathon, having Cam's sister Jay and a Blue Norther Gail Black come for a few days and having my dad come the end of October to stay for a few weeks. We hope you had a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving. We have lots to be thankful for and hope that you do too.
